The Leandroses Are Quoted
by Who Shot AR
Summary: A repository of short fics from a theoretical future featuring Promise and Niko's two children in addition to the usual suspects .
1. Calla

One of my favourite things to write in just about any given fandom is next-gen fic. I'm no longer especially interested in writing for this fandom, but I thought I'd collect a few of the small next-gen stories I wrote for it on the off-chance that anyone else had a yen for these sorts of stories the way I have. They're all set some nebulous time in the future (and were all written before _Deathwish_ came out, though I don't think there's anything to contradict the events of that book) and star, in addition to our usual cast, Niko and Promise's son and daughter.

* * *

Calla

She was beautiful, in that new-babies-look-like-aliens kind of way. Their fingers look too long and their heads are shaped like they're getting ready to guest-star on a Coneheads sketch on Saturday Night Live. But she had a little head of dark hair already--I hoped it turned out to be Promise's mink brown rather than my black--and the beginnings of what looked like might be Nik's nose. Poor girl, stuck with Cyrano's beak. Her mouth was perfect, though, and when she yawned, well...if I was the kind of guy whose heart melted at hour-old infants yawning, mine would've.

I felt uncomfortable as hell holding her. After Panos was born, I managed to avoid holding him much until he was big enough that he wouldn't break if I didn't keep his head in exactly the right position. This time around, Niko didn't seem willing to let me avoid touching the baby before she could sit up alone, though. In retrospect, I was surprised Niko didn't play his trump card--that _he'd_ figured out how to hold an infant when he was four and surely I could handle the task now--the first time around.

So there I was, holding the new baby while Niko supervised. Promise was asleep in the other room (a sleep she deserved, considering), and Panos was currently being entertained elsewhere by Robin. Loman had valiantly taken the toddler on a walk after Panos had attempted several times to inspect his little sister by poking her in the face.

"We've decided to name her Calla," Niko offered. I could hear the smile in his voice.

I glanced away from her face and up at her father's. "I thought I told you not to name any kids after me."

"And so I haven't." Nik wasn't really in the habit of smirking too much, but I couldn't describe his expression as anything else right then. He looked proud as hell, and not just because of Calla herself. "Calla lilies are Promise's favourite flower."

"Yeah, and the first syllable's just a coincidence." I was glad that all that nesting of Niko and Promise's had come to something good, yeah, but it wasn't someplace I really belonged. My idea of being domestic was throwing out pizza boxes from two weeks ago. I wanted to be Uncle Cal, but Uncle Cal with an actual child named after me? One of these things just didn't belong.

"Considering the lilies were named before you were..." Niko sat down next to Calla and me, brushing a strand of blond hair behind his ear. "Cal, you're my brother. It's important to me that I honour what family I have."

We sat in silence for a while. "All right," I finally replied, and after a pause, looked over him slyly. "You sure you don't want to call her Cyranette or something? She's gonna have your nose, after all." And if I hadn't been holding his daughter, I think I would've gotten a smack to the back of the head in response.


	2. Panos

One thing I have a great weakness for is naming characters. That was the way these began, as an effort to figure out what I'd want Niko and Promise to name any children they had. Balancing word names with Greek names and making them meaningful without taking the easy way out and making each one an honouring name was an interesting challenge. In the end, I called them Panos Arrow Leandros and Calla Secret Leandros.

I like to imagine that Cal occasionally calls Panos "pal."

* * *

Panos

"Then why am I Panos?" he asked, brow furrowed. "If I'm not named after Uncle Pan?"

It looked like that particular sobriquet wasn't going to fade any time soon. Robin would no doubt be delighted with "young Pan," as he insisted on calling the boy. Calla was beginning to pick it up herself, in a garbled sort of way, now that she was beginning to talk. Her brother had become Pano, while Robin was now "Panpan."

"Because...it was important to me to honour our Greek heritage," Niko replied. "Your name means 'all holy.' It seemed auspicious."

"Not for Uncle Pan at all?" There was a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"You were named just enough in honour of Robin for him to take all the credit," Promise cut in dryly, coming to sit next to the two on the sofa. "Calla is taking her nap, and I think it's time you did, too, Panos."


	3. Go Fish

If I ever do regain the desire to write in this fandom, I'd really like to broach the subject of Cherish; watching Promise explaining their late half-sister to Panos and Calla (when they're rather older than they are here) would be fascinating and difficult. In the meantime, Cal's still pretty good for filling in talk of monsters.

* * *

Go Fish

"You're not a monster. You're Uncle Cal," he replied, frowning. His skin might've been paler, but that expression was Niko the whole way through. Funny how shit like that gets passed down. He had his mother's subtle smiles, but when it came to disliking an answer, Panos was his dad completely. Calla watched in silence, biting her lower lip.

"Yeah, but--" I mean, how do you explain to a kid who's half-vampire that him being half-human is okay but you being half-human isn't? I lived in something coming close to peace with my Auphe half for the most part these days, but the occasional comment about it still slipped out sometimes. Usually not in front of the under-ten set, though--when I fucked up in front of them, it tended to involve the word 'fuck.' "Forget I said that, okay? I didn't mean it."

"But--"

"_I didn't mean it!_" The last thing I wanted was to pass down some shit of my own and land the kid his very own I'm-a-monster complex. Niko'd kill me, and I couldn't say I wouldn't beat the hell out of myself first for making Panos and Calla wonder if they were the kind of freak their good old grandma used to call me. I resisted the urge to curse and hoped that they'd let it go with a subject change. Holding up my hand of playing cards, I asked, "You guys want to finish Go Fish, don't you?"


	4. Scraps

These are embarrassingly unfinished, but they're never going to _be_ finished at this point. Can't be too much harm in putting them up here with the rest.

* * *

Scraps

"Why don't you and Uncle Ishiah have any kids?" The elder Leandros child, a ten year old boy with pale hair and paler skin, was regarding Robin with the expression of someone who has _just_ noticed a large elephant sitting in the center of a room, despite the fact that it has been sitting there all of his known existence. His younger sister, who was eight, dark-haired but no less pale complected, looked up with some interest from the chapter book she was reading at the sound of her brother's voice.

"_What_? Caligula's swollen, lice-ridden groi--" A sharp click of the tongue from Promise, who hadn't bothered to make any other show of paying attention to the conversation at hand, stopped that particular phrase in its tracks. "Lice-ridden _goiter_, why do you want to know that?"

"I was just wondering."

-

At some point in the seven years he'd existed, Panos Leandros developed a fascination with his Uncle Ishiah's bar. What exactly had brought on his interest in the place was a matter of some debate; Cal suggested it had much to do with his father's long-standing dislike of taking him there, while Niko indicated that it had far more to do with Cal's occasional practice of taking Panos to the Ninth Circle anyway. Robin surprised no one by declaring that young Pan clearly enjoyed the promise of seeing his favourite uncle.

Ishiah, who generally kept his own counsel on the occasions the subject came up, suspected Panos was most taken by the patrons of the bar than anything else. When Cal brought the boy or his sister in, Ishiah reserved a small smile for the children and a raised eyebrow for their uncle. Both Panos and Calla were quiet on these visits.

-

Up to sunset, the Hudson glittered like the surface was a sea of diamonds instead of a polluted river, and Calla hated it. She'd figured out early on that the sunlight wasn't any more fun indirectly than it was hitting her straight on. Trying to get her to go out when there was any chance of catching sight of it was like trying to get Robin Goodfellow to sign a purity pledge: you could give it all the effort you had, but you wouldn't make much headway.

I think she was afraid of the water, too, though I couldn't tell you why if I wanted to because she denied it with gusto. She hated going within a block of the edge of the water, even at night. It was a pain in the ass when you factored in that I ilived/i a block away from the river, but I didn't mind it too much. Calla had normal fears. Well, sort of; most six year olds didn't know what revenants were, let alone feared them. But for the most part, she and her older brother had only been afraid of normal little kid stuff. I was willing to trade some arguments over how we got to the subway for two kids who didn't spend their nights terrified of the monsters they might see waiting outside their window.

That afternoon, I minded it. Professor Niko had a night class to teach, and Promise had a social engagement that didn't include precocious grade-schoolers on the invite, so I was on babysitting duty for the evening.


End file.
